Aluminum swaps have come a long way since August 9th 2013, when the first lots on the CME’s MW US Transaction futures contract were reported to have traded. By the end of May 2016, open interest for exchange traded CME premium contracts stood at 27,890 lots [735,250 mt], up 194% on year. Swap contract trade rose further in June, with large volumes traded for H2 2016 and H1 2017.

There are a couple months of the year that seem busier than others, and April is one in the oil industry. The first quarter has ended, and many of the editors here at Platts are readying themselves for the slew of earnings calls and reports that will be coming soon. Those quarterly updates can sometimes signal big changes – announcements about new projects, financial doings, production figures, etc. – and we wanted to assess the global oil industry now, in the calm before the storm.

Like he has dozens of times over the past two years, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler this week extolled the benefits of his agency’s intense efforts to reform US swaps market.

“As of October 12, the new era of swaps market reform began,” Gensler said in a speech to a Futures Industry Association conference in Chicago, delivered Thursday by video due to travel troubles following Hurricane Sandy. “This will lead to significant benefits for the public. It also presents opportunities as well as challenges for market participants.”

During the conference, CFTC Commissioner Scott O’Malia, a Republican and frequent critic of the CFTC’s swaps reform rulemaking process, had less kind words for the start of this new era. It was a “train wreck,” he told Reuters.